Sokkarooge
by thesecondringbearer
Summary: A Christmas Carol, Avatar style. All Sokka cares about these days is his money. It's up to Toph and the rest of the gaang to try to get him feeling a bit more festive... Tokka.
1. Chapter One

Sokka was counting his money.

He had a lot of money. A very small portion consisted of the blue beads of the Water Tribes, but most of it was in Earth Kingdom currency and Fire Nation coins—Sokka's business was international. Due to his wide array of customers, inventing was very profitable—not as profitable as the last business he'd been involved with, but that one had been a lot more dangerous. It was lucky he'd gotten out of that business while he still had the chance. Though recently… well, at least he had plenty of money for all the shopping sprees he went on. Or was planning to go on—since his business had picked up he hadn't had any time for shopping. Oh well, one of these days he'd go shopping. Eventually. Maybe. If he could find the time.

Sokka pushed his piles of money aside and turned to the plans for his latest invention. It was the most costly thing he'd ever created, and he was determined to get it right. This baby was going to earn him a fortune.

On the other side of the room, Sokka's brother-in-law Aang was jib-jabbering away. "So then Tenzin made a huge wind and blew away all the laundry! He's going to be the world's greatest airbender, I just know it!"

Sokka grunted. He blew on his bottle of ink, trying to warm it up. The stupid liquid was freezing to slush.

"Sokka?" Aang zoomed over. "Here," he said, touching the bottle of ink with a small flame. "Why don't you just get a bigger fire pit?"

"Like I'm going to hire someone to make one for me," Sokka scoffed. "The waterbenders around here charge an arm and a leg for making fire pits. It's ridiculous!"

Aang considered this, then raised his arms in a fluid motion. The ice around the fire pit liquidated. It pulled back, leaving a much bigger pit in the ice floor.

"There!" Aang said, and the ice froze in place.

"I'm not paying you," Sokka said over the scritch-scratching of his quill.

"Oookay." Aang lined the pit with earth and blasted fire into it. "There we go! Much warmer."

Sokka didn't respond. He focused on the plans he'd drawn, trying to figure out what adjustments he needed to make to get this thing off the ground. Maybe…

"Whatcha inventing, Sokka?" A gust of wind swooped the paper off the desk and plastered it to Sokka's face.

"Do you mind?" Sokka snatched the paper from his face and glared at Aang, who was now hovering in front of Sokka's desk.

"Sorry." Aang let the air scooter he'd been sitting on die and looked at Sokka hopefully. "So?"

"I'm working on _this_." Sokka handed the piece of paper over.

"A pointy house?"

"No, it's-"

"A mechanical dog monkey?"

"Nooooo. Why does everyone keep saying that? It's an _airplane_."

"Oh," Aang said, craning his neck and thoroughly examining what admittedly looked remarkably like a dog monkey. "What's an airplane?"

"I got the idea from your glider. It's basically a huge glider that can carry a bunch of people at one time."

"Wow, Sokka, that sounds really cool! I'm impressed."

"Thank you," Sokka said, feeling gratified. "It _is _impressive, isn't it?"

"Very," Aang agreed.

Sokka x-ed out part of the design. The wing configuration wasn't right. Now if he just made a few calculations… He pulled out his abacus.

"Um, Sokka?"

"Eh?"

"Why didn't you have Katara make a new fire pit for you?"

"Because I didn't want to pay her either."

"Sokka, we're your family. Surely you don't think we want your money?"

"Well, you never know, Aang. There are some people who just care about money and nothing else," Sokka said loftily. "By the way, an Earth Kingdom tenth-of-a-cent got frozen into my floor during last year's spring thaw. Could you-"

Aang used a combination of metal and waterbending to get the coin out. "You know I've never asked you for money."

"True."

"Although…"

"Although?"

Aang's next words came out in a rush. "Well, being the Avatar, I don't exactly get paid, and Katara and I are sort of dependent on the goodwill of the people for everything we have. But with the seal hunting in the Southern Water Tribe being so poor this year, not many people are willing to share. Our kids' warm clothes from last year don't fit so well and I wanted to buy them something special—dinner and presents, you know—at the Moon Festival. So I was wondering if I could borrow some money from you. I'll pay you back, I swear. It's just… we're desperate."

"Say no more, Aang. I'd be glad to help you out."

"Really?" Aang's eyes lit up. "Thanks so much, Sokka. You have no idea how grateful-"

"Here." Sokka put three blue beads in Aang's hand.

"-we are." Aang stared at the pitiful amount.

"Oh, you can have this, too." Sokka tossed him the tenth-of-a-cent. "Now, I expect you to pay me back by the end of next season."

"…uh…"

"With eighty percent interest. No, make it eighty-five."

"Okay." Aang pocketed the money, then brightened. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow at the Moon Festival, huh?" His tone was casual, too much so.

"Unlikely. I'm not going." Sokka turned back to his abacus. _Drat_. He'd lost count.

"You say that every year."

"And then I uphold it."

"I know, but… couldn't you make an exception? Katara was saying just the other day how she hardly sees you anymore. And Pakku, Kya, and Tenzin would love to see their Uncle Sokka!"

"Oh, there are three of them now?"

"Yes, Sokka," Aang said, starting to sound annoyed. "You came to Tenzin's naming two years ago. Remember?"

Sokka thought about it for a minute. "Is he the waterbending one?"

"No, that's Kya. Her naming was _three_ years ago."

"Then, no."

"Well," Aang said. "All sorts of people are coming to the Moon Festival this year! Have you seen Zuko yet? He arrived this morning."

"Really? The Firelord came all the way to the Southern Water Tribe for a festival? Shouldn't he be busy burning stuff or something? Enforcing laws? Helping his wife with his million kids?"

"He does not have a million kids. He has four. And one on the way."

"Right," Sokka said. He shuffled through the mail on his table until he came up with the family portrait Zuko had sent him last week. He'd only looked at it briefly because there had been something else in the mail that had demanded his attention more. Now he read the message scrawled across the bottom. "Love from Zuko, Mai, Gyatso, Bosco, Lu Ten, Lee, and unborn Fire Nation Prince or Princess. Cute. Remind me why Zuko named one of his kids Bosco again?"

"An appeasement measure," Aang explained. "He named his firstborn son Gyatso as an act of respect towards the air nomads his great-grandfather destroyed. He wanted to honor the Earth Kingdom next, so King Kuei said the nation would be honored if Zuko would name his next son Bosco."

Sokka snorted.

"Lu Ten and Lee, the twins, have typical Fire Nation names."

"Why not Water Tribe names? If he's going for appeasement, I mean."

"Zuko's saving one of those for his first daughter. He thinks it's the name that will honor the Water Tribes the best: Yue."

Sokka hunched over his abacus again.  
>"Chief Arnook will be at the festival tomorrow."<p>

"Really? I'm surprised he can stand it." Sokka kept his eyes trained on the abacus.

"He chooses to think of the occasion as a way to honor her instead of a reason to feel pain. Maybe if you felt that way…"

"You think this is about Yue?" Sokka laughed. Well, he did his best, anyway. It came out as a weak, "Ha. Ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha."

Aang raised an eyebrow.

"Well, anyway," Sokka said, "I have too much work to do to take time off for a silly festival. What's the point? There isn't one. My time is better spent working on this airplane." He thought of the invitation lying in his mail pile. "And if I do take tomorrow off, believe me, I'm not going to the Moon Festival."

"Okay," Aang said after a long pause. "Well, I should get going, Sokka. Thanks again for the money."

He was at the polar bear dog fur door when he turned around. "By the way, I invited Toph to the Moon Festival."

Sokka looked up from his abacus for the first time in five minutes. "Toph? What did she say? I mean, write? Er, have someone else write for her?"

"She never responded." Aang shrugged. "Just thought you should know."

"Right," Sokka said. He sat in thought for a full minute after Aang left.

Then he shrugged all the thoughts off. Sokka had work to do.


	2. Chapter Two

_Yes_, Sokka decided. _I'm going_.

It had taken him all afternoon and most of the evening to make the decision, but in the end he decided the projected profit of the trip would be worth it. He could lay aside his airplane plans for a few days… _or_ he realized _I can just bring them with me._ Sokka could work on the plans during any free time, in between bites at meals, or even work at night instead of going to sleep!

"Perfect!" Sokka said to himself. He decided to go to bed early-ish. If he was going to borrow Appa from Aang before the Moon Festival hubbub started, Sokka would have to rise before the sun—figuratively, at least. The sun had been gone for six months and wouldn't come back until the day after the festival.

"Welcome to the South Pole, where we have six-month-long nights," Sokka grumbled as he trudged through the snow from his workshop to the tiny igloo nearby where he slept. As always, he hunched over to avoid the moon's gaze, shivering as he navigated through the cold and the dark. Oh well. By this time tomorrow, he'd be relaxing on Hot Springs Island. Well, he'd be in the middle of business negotiations on Hot Springs Island, technically, but close enough.

Inside his tiny house, Sokka poured himself a cup of cold cheap tea and rummaged in the icebox. Curses. All he had was a gristly bit of arctic hen and a few sea prunes. Visions of mangoes, crab puffs, and fire flakes danced in Sokka's head. And there was meat, oh the different kinds of meat…

"Mmmm," he breathed unwillingly. When Sokka's business had begun to take off, he'd planned to import meats from all over the world for his meals until he realized just how expensive that was. His stomach said yes to the cost but his pocketbook decidedly said no. So Sokka, too busy to catch food himself, bought local cuisine from the neighbors until this year's poor hunting had raised the prices to ridiculousness. Now the young inventor purchased only the cheapest foods, which he then stretched for several meals. The arctic hen gristle, for example, was left over from yesterday's lunch _and _dinner.

He picked up the unappetizing meat and looked at it. And to think he could afford to eat steak for every meal… but no, he couldn't, he needed to save that money… for… something…

Sokka set some snow in a pot over the fire, then threw in the gristle and sea prunes. Wrapping himself in a blanket, he settled down next to the fire pit and watched his supper stew.

Making dinner soon proved tedious. "Should've brought something to work on," Sokka mumbled. As it was, he was left stirring his pot of stew, which was beginning to smell, but not in a nice way. It sort of reminded him of the smell his mom's seal soup gave off after he dumped soap in it when he was a kid.

The thought of his mom's cooking made him think of Katara—now a mom herself, which was always kind of weird for Sokka to think about. He wondered what Katara was making for dinner tonight. True, times were lean for the Avatar's family and true, they ate vegetarian, but a meal with them was still always a treat. Katara made a mean seaweed biscuit. Well, she used to. Sokka couldn't actually remember the last time he'd eaten at his sister's home.

Another person who'd surely eat well tonight was Sokka's dad, who was about twelve times the cook Sokka would ever be. Hakoda's salted fish rolls were to die for, to say nothing of his five-flavor soup. The thought was almost enough to make Sokka jump to his feet and run to the chief's house for dinner. Too bad things were so awkward between them these days.

The stew should be done. Sokka poured himself a bowl and decided that, hey, it didn't look so bad.

"It's edible," he declared to his empty home. "I think." He scooted back against the frozen wall and gazed into the depths of his bowl, trying to figure out if it was possible to eat the stew without letting it touch his tongue. Finally he decided that no, it wasn't, and chugged the broth, then quickly chewed up the sea prunes and gristle. It was actually pretty good. Ish. Sort of. Okay, not really. It was gross. Sokka drank cup after cup of tasteless tea until his mouth was relatively cleansed whilst making notes on a scrap of paper. If he could make a machine that could extract the nutrients from food and distill them into one small chewable square, he could sell the thing for a fortune and also save himself from having to eat a meal like this one ever again. You'd never have to go through the squeamish experience of eating gristle if you could just suck the energy value right out of it.

Sokka jotted away until he realized it was getting pretty late and that he really should go to bed. Yawning, Sokka moved to put out the fire. His mind had already leapt ahead to the delights of snuggling down in his sleeping bag when there was a knock at the door.


	3. Chapter Three

At first Sokka was just really confused because he didn't have a door. Then he realized that the animal furs stretched across the doorway had frozen in place and that whoever was at the door was knocking on them. Or—he raised an eyebrow—possibly viciously kicking them.

"Open up, Sokka!"

Sokka blinked. "_Toph_?" He jumped to his feet, pried away the furs, and a huge smile spread across his face. "Toph!" Sokka held out his arms for a hug.

"Sokka," Toph said in a much less excited tone and, walking forward, poked him in the eye with her outstretched hand.

"Ouch! Why'd you do that?"

"Because I was trying to walk into your house and you, apparently, are standing in my way."

Sokka looked down and saw the boots on Toph's feet. "Oh. Right. No earth in the South Pole, huh?" He moved aside, allowing her to come in.

"Oh, there's earth here." Toph stomped into Sokka's house and immediately tripped over the spare parka he planned to put away but kept forgetting about. "In some areas, at least. It's just waaaaaay down there. Guess how long it took me to find it and pull some up?"

"Well, if you'll allow me to calculate the thickness of the average ice floe, I won't have to guess-" Sokka began in a self-important voice, but Toph cut him off.

"Five minutes, Sokka. Five!"

Sokka whistled.

"And if water weren't such a fluid element, like air-"

"Careful, Toph, that's the fire pit!" He steered her away from the fire by her arm, which she immediately jerked from his grasp.

"-I probably wouldn't be able to sense it at all. As it is, some of the ice is so thick I can't feel earth. And the earth that I _can _pull up-" Toph gave a little snort that made her bangs flutter "-I can't do much with it. Wanna know why, Sokka?"

"The boots?" Sokka guessed.

"That's right," Toph said disgruntledly. "That's right." She flopped onto the ground and leaned against the wall, crossing her legs.

Sokka caught a muffled sound. "Toph, are you…clanking?"

"Come now, Sokka. Why would I be clanking?" He couldn't help but notice that wasn't a real answer, but before he could further question her Toph plowed on. "Why does it have to be so cold here, hmm? Why is it always boot-wearing weather?"

"I don't know, but the cold's not so bad." Sokka thought of the six-month night, how endless it seemed and how he always felt like the moon was watching him. "The dark is worse."

"Totally," Toph said, and for a moment Sokka felt like someone was on his side. He almost said as much until he realized that she was joking at his expense. Then he scowled at Toph's smirk instead.

"Why are you here?" He sat near her, cross-legged.

"I came for your Moon Festival. Duh."

"Thought you didn't answer Aang."

"I didn't. I figured it would be answer enough when I showed up. Boy, were they surprised to see me when I pulled in on the private Bei Fong boat right before dinner."

"Did you eat dinner at Katara's?"

"Sure did. Her seaweed biscuits get better every time."

Sokka sighed a sigh of regret.

There was an almost companionable silence. He studied her as she leaned forward to warm her hands in the fire. It had been years since Sokka had seen Toph. Now she was older, taller—what was she, twenty-one?… her black hair was braided down over one shoulder… but as far as he could tell she was still very much the same Toph through and through. This pleased him.

"So. Why did you come to see me, Toph?"

"I was going to wait till I had some tea before I told you. Have any tea?"

"Just this." Sokka held up a packet of the weak, cheap stuff.

Toph sniffed the tea. "Ew. No thanks. Okay, then, I guess I'll get this over with." She got to her feet. "Stand up, Sokka. Good, good. Now. Stand over here."

"May I ask why?"

"This is the easiest way for me to show you how I feel. So stand there… good, no wait, a little farther away." She grabbed his shoulders and adjusted him so that he was facing her. "Okay." She began to pull off her parka.

"…Toph?"

"Just wait."

As the blue parka came off, there was a flash of metal.

"You _are _clanking," Sokka said in confusion.

Toph straightened up. She appeared to be wrapped in a… long, metal-link chain? She flung the end of said chain and it-

"OW!"

-hit him in the face.

"That's for abandoning me!" Toph snarled. In the firelight, her pale skin glowed and the metal chain draped all about her glinted. Her eyes flashed with the reflection of the fire and she cast a long, other-worldly shadow on the ice behind her.

"This can't be real," Sokka said stupidly, rubbing his chin with his gloved hand. "That awful gristle and sea prune stew is giving me hallucinations. You can't possibly be real- OW!" The chain snapped him in the stomach.

"That real enough for you?"

"Ergh," he gurgled. "So you're real. Why are you smacking me with that ridiculous piece of jewelry?"

"Okay, first of all, it's not jewelry. It's my punishment. And second of all, I already told you. That's _your _punishment. For abandoning me."

"Seriously, Toph, what are you talking about?"

"The last time you saw me," she said through gritted teeth. "Five years ago. When we were-"

"-scamming partners," Sokka said, a knot suddenly tying itself in his stomach. "Yeah."

"And we got caught," Toph said. "You made a run for it, and I got carted off to Earth Kingdom jail."

"I thought you wanted me to save the money," Sokka protested. "We had plans for that stuff."

"I'm not questioning your escape, Sokka. What I am questioning is why you didn't come bail me out the next day."

"…I didn't want to get caught?"

"You could have sent the money with someone else. Or bribed the guards to not turn you in. My point is, we were supposed to be partners. Friends. Best friends. Best friends don't leave best friends to rot in jail."

"Well." Sokka had no defense for that. "You can't blame me for using the money to start my inventing business, Toph. I never heard from you again-"

"This isn't about the money, you moron!" Toph exploded. "This is about the fact that you left, and that I had to write a letter to my parents, practically _begging _them to come pay my bail."

"I'm… sorry."

"You should be. Even the wealth of the Bei Fongs wasn't enough to get poor Toph off scot-free. The Earth Kingdom police only agreed to let me go _if_ I wore a symbol of my guilt for the next five years." Toph raised her arms, better displaying the heavy chain wrapped around them. "So I've been stuck wearing this stupid thing for, gee, five years now, Sokka. Five. _Years_."

"But you're a metalbender. Wearing a metal chain shouldn't really bother- OW! Spirits, Toph, why would you _do_ that?"

"You see," Toph said as Sokka rubbed the new welt on his forehead, "is that it's about the _principle_ of the thing. And the principle of the thing is that wearing chains isn't fun."

"So you came all the way down to the South Pole just to tell me that?" he said incredulously.

"Yes and no. I also came to talk about _this_." Toph whipped a thick green piece of paper out of her pocket. "Did you get one of these? An invitation to the resort at Hot Springs Island?"

"How'd you get that?"

"Earth Kingdom nobility are frequently invited to Hot Springs Island for relaxing getaways. But this month, one of the ongoing events is the Inventors' Showcase Conference, which starts tomorrow night."

"Toph, you can read?" Sokka said in awe.

"What do you think?" Her tone of voice was dangerous.

He thought about this carefully for a minute, trying to avoid being hit with the chain again. "I think… someone read it to you?"

"Good job, Sokka. Good job. Anyway, I decided I'd better take a hop, skip, and a jump down here especially to make sure you weren't going to said conference."

Silence. "Well-"

"You can't go."

"And why not?" he said, irritated.

"Because."

"A little elaboration, please?"

"Okay, first of all, you do realize that the kinds of guys who buy stuff from inventors at these conferences aren't exactly the world's nicest? You make a lot of mighty fine weapons and vehicles that could be used for war, and some of the guys who would buy them wouldn't hesitate to use them for exactly that. They might tear apart everything we've fought for and worked hard to build."

"_But_," Sokka said, "I'll earn lots of money!"

A pause. "Seriously, Sokka?"

"The way I see it, the return is greater than the risk! See, if they buy my stuff, they _might_ start wars, but they also _might_ not. But, either way, I _will_ get paid."

Toph looked at him for a long time. Sort of.

"It would be a very good investment," he felt the need to add.

"Okaaay," Toph said, shaking her head. "But here's the kicker. You and I both know there's a lot more on Hot Springs Island than conferences and relaxing hot springs baths. We both know that Hot Springs Island has the biggest casino in the world, and we both know that part of the reason you're going to the conference is because you want to try your hand at swindling all of those bigwigs out of their money."

"Wow," Sokka said. "That was my plan exactly. You're good."

"Of course I am. But that plan is one you can't go through with."

"Oh, come on-"

"I'm telling you, those gamblers play a different kind of game than the ones we used to cheat people. They play a tough, mean game, and if they catch you in the middle of a scam they'll make you pay for it."

"So what? They'll call the police on me?"

"If you're lucky."

"Ominous."

"Face it, Sokka. You just can't pull off a scam of this caliber in a playing field that's this high-risk."

"Why not? I've done it before."

"Yeah, but you had me. There's no way you can successfully scam this many gambling-savvy people without me."

"Now wait just a moment. I'm the one who always did the card-counting scam! That was one of the most profitable swindles, and it's not like _you_ could do it."

A shadow passed over Toph's face.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly.

"Whatever."

"Come with me. You're right. I need your help."

"No, thanks. I'm glad I got out of scamming when I did, even if it was because I got arrested. It's good for me not to be in a business that's so much about money—and so selfish."

"Hey," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You do whatever the heck you want, Sokka. Just know this: if you sell weapons of war to persons of interest, or if you get back into the swindling business, even a little bit —if you swindle anyone, anywhere— the metalbending cops from Republic City will come after you."

"They will?" Sokka started to get nervous. "Why would they do that?"

"Because I am the chief of the metalbending cops and I'll make sure of it!"

"Aw, Toph! Why would you do that to me?"

She ducked her head. "Because," she said after a silence, "maybe I care about you too much to let you do this to yourself. I'm leaving." She strode forward purposefully.

"Doorway's the other way."

She turned around and strode purposefully some more. As her hand began to push the furs aside, she paused.

"Tonight you'll be visited by three spirits. One will be the Spirit of Past Moon Festivals. One will be the Spirit of the Present Moon Festival. One will be the Spirit of Future Moon Festivals."

"Sounds repetitive. And not likely to happen."

"You'll see," Toph said. "Just remember, Sokka, if you don't change your ways, you'll end up in the Republic City prison, shackled in a chain twice this size. Or, worse, you'll end up completely alone."


	4. Chapter Four, Part One

Sokka was going to Aang and Katara's house, but he wasn't going to see his sister, or his brother-in-law, or his nephews or niece. No, Sokka was going to Aang and Katara's so that he could see Momo.

"'Cause Momo and I are beeeest friends!" Sokka exclaimed to himself. As he approached the igloo's doorway, the lemur suddenly appeared, jumping down from the roof and running toward Sokka at top, joyous speed.

"Momo! Little buddy!" Sokka held out his arms wide. However, Momo did not jump into them as he had anticipated. Instead, Momo jumped onto Sokka's face and started eating it.

Sokka screamed and tried to push the lemur from his face, falling over in the process. "Why, Momo? Why?"

"Oh, sorry, Sokka," Aang said, floating gently down from the sky above. "It's been so long since Momo has seen you, he doesn't recognize you! He must think you're food."

Wheezing, Sokka did his best to fend Momo off, but he was losing badly. His face was being eaten at a rapid rate. And now Momo was slapping him, too-

"Sokka! Are you awake?"'Sokka's eyes sprung open. A shadowy figure knelt over him, tentatively slapping Sokka's face.

_Oh. It was all a dream_ was Sokka's first and very relieved thought.

His second: _Why is this creeper in my house_?

_Why was this creeper in my house _while I was sleeping?

_Why was this creeper in my house, _touching me_, while I was sleeping_?

But by the time Sokka had finished this thought process, the figure was saying, "It's time to go," causing Sokka to choke back his horrified scream and say, "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," said the figure, whose voice was deep and husky. Squinting, Sokka saw that he (it was definitely a he) wore a dark hooded cloak, which frankly did nothing to lower his creepiness factor.

"Who are you?"

"I," said the figure, "am the Spirit of Past Moon Festivals."

Sokka blinked. "You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding."

The Spirit mumbled something like, "I wish," then clearly said, "Toph said a Spirit of Past Moon Festivals was going to visit you tonight, right?"

"Well… yeah."

"Then I am that spirit. Now come on. We've got to get going. There's a long ways to walk."

* * *

><p>They walked.<p>

Sokka had protested for several minutes, telling the Spirit all the reasons he couldn't go with him. Then the Spirit said, "I will melt your house." Sokka did some quick calculations and decided that he probably couldn't afford that. So he got all bundled up and followed the Spirit out across the snow.

They walked through the sleeping village, then headed out of town in the direction of-

"The ice caves?" Sokka asked. "Why are we going to the ice caves?"

"There's a place in them where the spirit and mortal worlds meet: a spirit oasis."

"Oh. I didn't realize we had one of those down here in the South Pole."

"It was lost for centuries, but the spirits recently revealed its location to Avatar Aang. He's planning to announce the happy news at the Moon Festival. The oasis will supposedly provide your people with much guidance."

"'Supposedly?'"

"I couldn't vouch for it either way. Spirit oases aren't really my thing."

"That's weird, considering that you're a spirit and all."

The Spirit stopped walking. He couldn't see very well into the folds of the Spirit's cloak, but Sokka could have sworn he rolled his eyes. Then the Spirit said, "Yes. Well. There are all kinds of spirits."

The moon beamed down gracefully over the wilderness of snow. Sokka pulled his hood over his face as far as it could go and hunched over, focusing on the Spirit's footprints, which were… melting.

"You cold?" the Spirit asked, glancing back. "Here." He pulled a small jar from the folds of his cloak and dumped a ball of flame into it.

"You're a firebender? But I thought spirits couldn't bend-"

"They can't," the Spirit said quickly.

"-oh wait, yes they can. There was that one time when Roku appeared and firebended all those sage dudes. It's just in the spirit world where no one can bend-"

"Um, yes," the Spirit said, "That's just what I was going to say. Spot on."

"So what are you? Like, the Spirit of Firebending or something?" Sokka asked with excitement.

There was a short pause. "Um- yes?" The Spirit glanced at the sky like he expected something to fall from it and crush him, but he seemed to relax at the sight of the moon. "Yes. I am the Spirit of Firebending and… its source, the sun." He cringed a little more, then finished, "You can call me Agni."

"Agni! That's so cool! So can you—hey, wait a minute, you already said you were the Spirit of Past Moon Festivals."

"I'm both. This Moon Festival job is, you know, something I do in my spare time."

"Huh," Sokka said. "Kind of weird that the sun spirit would also be the spirit of a moon celebration, especially in a place and during a time of year where the sun never shows up. How'd you get landed with that gig?"

"Downsizing," said Agni. "The Spirit World lays off more spirits every year."

That didn't sound quite right to Sokka, but then Agni said, "We're here." They had hiked up the narrow path to the ice caves, taken a right turn, and were now standing in front of a solid sheet of ice.

"Stand back." Agni raised his arms and a wave of flame washed over the ice, melting a doorway through which they stepped.

"Whoa." The place was comparatively warm, and while it wasn't super green like the spirit oasis at the North Pole, there were delicate silver glowing flowers twined all over the ice. A swirling, steaming pool sat on the far side of the cave. It seemed to be the source of the heat.

"Come." Agni crossed to the pool and sat next to it, cross-legged. Sokka imitated him and stared at the tiny flowers, wondering how much people would pay for those. If they could grow in ice, Water Tribe women would trip over themselves to get some. Gran-Gran had always talked about how much she would love to have a garden…

"Focus, Sokka!" barked Agni.

"Focusing." Sokka straightened up.

"Let's meditate." Agni closed his eyes. The flowers' glow threw a light under his hood. There appeared to be something over the spirit's left eye...

"Agni, are you scarred?"

"No!" snapped Agni. Every time he yelled, his voice went from deep and husky to much higher and strained. It kind of reminded Sokka of… but before he could complete that thought, Agni was yelling at Sokka again, telling him how much time he was wasting.

"Now meditate!" he ordered.

"Why?"

Agni exhaled a long, steaming breath. "Because," he said in a somewhat calmer voice. "We're going to visit the Moon Festivals of your past."

"We can do that?"

"Yes. This particular spirit oasis has a direct link to time."

Sokka looked into the swirling waters. "But… I don't understand. Toph kind of hinted that the spirits were coming to help me change my ways—not that _I_ think my ways need changing—but anyways, I don't understand why we would visit my past. How can that help?"

"Toph's biggest concern is that you are too focused on money and you've lost sight of what's really important," Agni said. "Now, in my experience, when someone becomes too obsessed with one thing—like money, or say, uh, honor—it's because something in their past has twisted them up inside, messed with their ability to be human. Coming to terms with the past and realizing where you messed up or _got_ messed up can be the best way for you to deal with your obsession with honor."

"You mean money."

"Yes. Yes, I do. Now come. Let's meditate, find peace, and use the power of the spirit oasis to-" a flame flickered in Agni's hand "-shed a little light on your present behavior."

"Okay, but-"

"Peace, dangit!" roared Agni. "Meditate and FIND PEACE!"

"'Kay," Sokka said quickly, and they began to meditate.

* * *

><p>"So," Agni said. "What have we here?"<p>

Sokka blinked. They were standing in the village arena, the place all spruced up for the Moon Festival, except the decorations were much fancier than the ones Sokka had seen walking in to pick up inventing supplies.

"Enjoy the festivities!" Chief Hakoda cried from the ceremonial stand constructed near the shore, and everyone cheered.

"Um," Sokka said. "This is a Moon Festival from my past, right? How far into my past are we talk- oh."

For Sokka's dad had jumped down from the stand and joined three figures waiting for him in the crowd. Two of them were very small, and the other-

"Your mom?" Agni asked gently.

Sokka could only nod.

"You conducted the opening ceremony beautifully, Hakoda," said Sokka's mother. She kissed her husband.

"Thank you, sweetheart," Hakoda said, squeezing Kya's hand. "How's my baby girl?" He swung Katara up in his arms. "Still tripping?"

"On everything," Kya said, rolling her eyes.

"This must be the Moon Festival when Katara was two," Sokka said as Hakoda placed his daughter on the ground. She took a few tentative steps and then fell flat on her face.

Agni gave a choking noise that made Sokka think he was trying not to laugh. "That's a little old to not know how to walk."

"Not around here," Sokka said. "It's pretty hard to teach babies to walk, with the snow and the ice to slip on and the heavy clothes that weigh them down. Katara actually started walking early, the summer before this, but then during the winter she had to wear my boots from the year before. They were way too big for her and they set her back, like, a whole year. She couldn't stay upright for more than a few steps. And if Katara is two, that makes me three."

Sure enough, three-year-old Sokka poked his head out from behind his mother's back. "Hi, Daddy."

Sokka started. Watching himself was weird. He looked down at his adult self, trying to reconcile the fact that he existed in two places at the moment, but it wasn't exactly comforting. As a spirit, he was insubstantial and glowing blue.

"Come on," Hakoda said to his family. "Let's go enjoy the Moon Festival we've worked so hard on." He sat Katara on his shoulders and led them through the circle of various booths.

"Look, Sokka," Kya said, taking her son's hand. "Uku brought a special meat back from the Earth Kingdom."

"Moose lion," Uku said proudly. "Marinated in my special sauce. One of the best meals you'll ever have, I guarantee it."

Kya opened her beaded purse. "Hakoda? Do you want any?"

"No, thanks," Hakoda chuckled. "It's a little pricey. I think I'll get myself and Katara some sugar lichen cakes instead."

Katara began to fuss. Uku handed her a small glass of polar berry juice and she glugged it down gleefully.

"Why have sugar lichen cakes when you can have meat?"

"I've never understood your obsession with meat," Hakoda said, chucking his wife under her chin.

"Meat is the best food ever. Isn't that right, my little warrior?" Kya handed three-year-old Sokka a skewer of moose lion.

"Yes, Mommy, it is!"

Sokka watched enviously as his younger self devoured the juicy meat. He hadn't had anything that good in at least a year.

"See? Sokka knows what I'm talking about."

"Okay," Hakoda said, raising a hand in defeat. "If Sokka thinks so too, you must be right."

Little Sokka grinned, proud to have his father's approval. His mother wiped moose lion juice from her son's face and kissed his cheek.

"Now you," Kya said, looking at Katara's polar berry juice-covered face.

Katara squealed, "No! No clean face, Mommy!" The remaining contents of her glass suddenly jumped up over the rim and splashed down on little Sokka's head.

"Clean him instead!" Katara pointed to Sokka's dripping hair and face.

"Mommy, Katara's juice flew at me!"

"Oh no, dear," Kya said. "She simply spilled it." But older Sokka caught what his three-year-old self hadn't: the look his parents shared, a look half of pride and half of extreme worry.

"Well, come along," Hakoda said, handing Katara to his wife and swinging Sokka up in his arms. "I'll buy you all sugar lichen cakes. And then pearls for you, Kya, a doll for Katara, and, let me see, Sokka, I think you're old enough for a toy boomerang this year!"

The small family walked on through the festival. Sokka tried to follow them, but the scene faded to black.

"Look at how happy you were," Agni said. "Carefree, unhampered by the woes of life or by the dreadful, selfish scourge of money-"

"Why are you reading off a piece of paper?"

"I'm not." Agni quickly stuffed the paper back into his cloak. "Anyways…"

"They already knew Katara's waterbending might cost them something," Sokka said, staring at where his parents had been not a moment before. "They were already planning to make any necessary sacrifices. What my mom died, it was like… something she'd planned to do for years and years, if she had to, not something she came up with on the spur of the moment. I never knew that until now."

"Mothers are like that," Agni said. "Maybe all good parents; I wouldn't know about fathers. But a mother will always be looking for the possible future threats her children face and then do whatever she can to protect them. And I know it seems like she was just trying to protect Katara, but you saw her just now, how she acted around you. She loved you just as much as she loved your sister. She must have felt like her death would protect you, too."

"Well, yeah, it did. The Fire Nation stopped raiding us after they thought they'd killed the last waterbender. And I've never felt like Mom loved Katara more or anything. She would have done the same if the Fire Nation had been looking for me, I'm sure. At any rate, my mother died such a long time ago that I've pretty much come to terms with it-"

"Over time," Agni said, "I've come to the conclusion that when mothers leave their kids, it's because they can't think of any other way to keep them safe. As much as a mother would rather stay and raise and protect her kids forever, that may not always be an option. You have to believe that your mother knew what she was doing. Otherwise, it's just going to keep hurting forever and forever, and you're always going to be having what-ifs. 'What if my mom hadn't left? Would my sister and I have so many issues? Would my mom have protected me from my father?'"

"I've actually never-"

"The point is, just let it go."

"I was trying to tell you that I have! I accepted the fact that she's gone a long time ago."

"Oh." Agni looked down at his hands with a deep frown, seeming to be lost in some kind of tragic memory. "Well. You're very lucky. Now let us proceed." There was a crinkling of paper, then Agni read haltingly. "This Moon Festival took place quite a few years later, in another land, after you had grown up parentless and feeling lost. Poor pathetic lad, no more mom or dad—that's it." He crumpled the paper violently. "That's the last time I let Aang write a speech for me. This is like Uncle's birthday party all over again-"

But Sokka wasn't listening.

He saw Yue.

"The Moon Festival when I was fifteen," he whispered, "in the Northern Water Tribe."

"I didn't know you guys also celebrated the Moon Festival," said fifteen-year-old Sokka. He and Yue walked together through the icy Northern Water Tribe city, stopping every so often to get something from a booth. They were given everything free, a perk of hanging out with a princess.

"It's one of our biggest celebrations every year," Yue said.

"Same here! Maybe someday after the war is over both tribes could celebrate together."

"That would be great,' Yue said. "Our records show that our tribes used to get together frequently for joint celebrations, some of them very similar to the Moon Festival. If we could revive that tradition, our tribes could truly be like family again. We could bring the Northern and Southern Water Tribes together! Wonderful!"

"I also think it would be wonderful if we could bring the Northern and Southern Water Tribes together," fifteen-year-old Sokka said, gazing at the beautiful princess. Older, twenty-four-year-old Sokka remembered how tempted he had been to kiss her, but that he'd stopped himself out of respect. After all, she was engaged, and besides, she kept saying that she just wanted to be friends.

Yue smiled at him as they walked across one of the city's many bridges. "Well, we'll see. If we can't, maybe others will do it for us."

"What do you mean, 'if we can't?'"

"We _are_ in the middle of a war, Sokka," Yue said sadly. "We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know if there will still be Water Tribes after the war is over. Maybe our people will be wiped out."

"That's a depressing thought."

"It happens in wars, sometimes. Look at the Air Nomads. And even if our people survive… we don't know if we will. There's a chance that neither of us may make it out of this war alive. So we should just-"

"Kiss?"

"-not make any plans." She laughed even as tears rolled down her face. "Sokka, I'm scared. Sometimes, I—I just have this feeling that I'm going to have to do something hard, and because of duty-"

"Hey, none of that." Sokka gathered her in his arms for a tentative hug. "Nothing's going to happen to you. I'll protect you."

Older Sokka flinched as the scene faded to black.

"Oh, this is the one who turned into the moon, huh?" Agni said.

"Yeah. Something like that."

"How many Moon Festivals have you attended since then?"

"In nine years? Technically, none."

"'Technically?'"

"I did get dragged onto the outskirts of some celebrations that happened on Moon Festival day throughout the years," Sokka said, "but none of them were exactly Moon Festivals. They all took place in other countries."

"Like in the Fire Nation?" From the blackness around them rose a Fire Nation palace, its ballroom bedecked with red and gold. Music played, delicious smells filled the air, and most everyone was dancing, eating, or talking in an extremely animated manner.

"Yup." Sokka located himself very easily. At seventeen years old, he sat on a stone bench far from the center of the party. Toph lounged next to him, her silken dress spilling all over the floor as she slouched.

"Don't you want to dance or anything?" she said in a bored voice. "That seems like the kind of thing you would enjoy."

"I do enjoy dancing," Sokka agreed, "but I don't feel like dancing tonight. Why don't you go dance?"

"Already danced with Aang and Zuko," Toph said. "Zuko's a pretty bad dancer. I kept stepping on his feet."

"Doesn't that make you the bad dancer?"

Toph punched Sokka's arm. "I would say it means he moves much too slowly," she sniffed. "What's that thing moving in the crowd?"

Sokka glanced up. "A paper dragon costume," he said. "There are people under it, trying to make it look alive."

"Weird. So what are you doing over here?"

"I'm filling out an application for a patent. Over the course of the war I invented both the submarine and the war balloon. If I fill this out, I might be able to get back some of the money the Fire Nation and other armies made off of selling my inventions, not to mention future revenue."

"So if you're about to come into a bunch of cash, you wouldn't mind buying me a coconut milk and some mango shrimp."

"I would mind. I'm not going to let myself count on this money until I actually have it in my hands. Besides, you should still have plenty of coin after last night's—well—you know."

"Scam?" Toph said dryly.

"Shhh. You know Zuko won't hesitate to throw us in jail if he learns that was us."

"Yeah, next time let's not scam in the country where our friend is supreme ruler. Especially, let's not scam while honored guests in his palace."

"Agreed."

"So are you going to buy me some food or not?"

"Not."

"Fine. I'll go buy us some snacks, since you're such a tightwad."

"Am not a tightwad."

"Sokka, once you wanted to buy a two-headed fish because you thought you would get more for your money."

"It was a _really good deal_, okay?"

"Uh-huh," Toph sniffed. "How long is this going to take you?"

"A while," Sokka said. "And then I need to write a letter for Suki. I think she's getting a bit ticked that she hasn't heard from me lately, to be honest. So it will have to be a pretty long letter. Like, I-don't-even-know-when-I'm-going-to-be-finished long. Some poetry may be involved."

Toph rolled her eyes. "Then I guess I'll go get the food myself. I'll be back." She stood up and strode away.

"Oh great," older Sokka said. "I just remembered what happens next. It's pretty bad."

"I thought this particular celebration was a day of joy and happiness, thrown by Fire Lord Zuko to celebrate the success of the Harmony Restoration Movement thus far as it had been put into action," said Agni, rather stiffly. "What could have happened this day that helped twist you into what you are?"

"A choice that I'm about to make," Sokka said, and he pointed to the figure walking towards seventeen-year-old Sokka. It was his father, Hakoda.


End file.
